Iiyama has announced the G-Master G3266HS-B1, its first curved monitor for gamers. The new display belongs to entry-level class and offers an FHD resolution along with dynamic refresh rate of up to 144 Hz enabled by AMD’s FreeSync technology. Pricing of the LCD looks rather competitive in Europe, but the U.S. MSRP remains to be seen.

The Iiyama G-Master G3266HS-B1 monitor is based on a 31.5” VA panel with a 1920×1080 resolution, a 144 Hz refresh rate, a 3 ms response time as well as a 1800R curvature. Brightness, contrast and viewing angles offered by the monitor are typical for modern inexpensive VA panels: 400 nits, 3000:1, and 178°/178°, nothing unexpected. The display supports AMD’s FreeSync technology, but Iiyama does not disclose its ranges. The manufacturer says that the G-Master G3266HS-B1 can display 16.7 million colors, but remains tightlipped about supported color spaces. Since the monitor is aimed at gamers, it is safe to say that it will be used with Windows-based PCs, which is why it has to support sRGB.

When it comes to connectivity, the monitor features everything an inexpensive LCD has to: a D-Sub and a DVI-D for legacy systems, as well as DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI for modern computers. In addition, the monitor has 3.5-mm audio-in/out connectors, and two integrated speakers. As for ergonomics, the G-Master G3266HS-B1 has a fixed stand and cannot regulate its height, tilt, swivel, but can be attached to a VESA wall mounting that supports appropriate adjustments.

The G-Master G3266HS-B1 is listed on Iiyama’s website, but is not yet available for sale or pre-order anywhere in the U.S. Meanwhile, a number of stores in Austria and Germany offer the monitor for €390 - €400 ($461 - $473), which is lower compared €485 that Acer charges for its XZ321Q (with similar specs) in Germany. We are not sure about the MSRP of the G3266HS-B1 in the USA, where it has not been officially announced yet, but it is logical to expect Iiyama to maintain a similar pricing policy as in Europe.

Iiyama is a bit late to the curved displays party that began in 2014 – 2015, but it definitely needed to get there to stay relevant on the market of gaming monitors. The G-Master G3266HS-B1 seems like as good start as any to see whether its clients bite a curved gaming display. The company went with rather moderate specs, and judging by the price of the product in Europe, it wanted to make its monitor competitive in terms of affordability.

Probably never. Nvidia charges an arm and a leg for the GSync controller; as long as that's the case it's only ever going to show up on expensive premium displays. Freesync (and it's HDMI equivalent in v2.1 of that spec) are free; and the basic version (with limited refresh ranges) can be - and is being - baked into commodity panel controllers for a very low premium and will probably work its way into everything except race to the bottom grade displays over the next few years.

If the same thing will happen with the much wider variably in refresh rates and other upgrades in Freesync 2 is a more open question. The general absence on the market of them (vs FS1 displays) suggests that either controller availability is still a problem, the controller itself is significantly more expensive (if this is manufacturing cost or first on the market premium pricing matters), or that the increased ranges need better and significantly more expensive panels. Some of those will correct themselves with time; others might might keep FS2 availablily relatively uncommon until AMD is competitive with NVidia at the very top of the market again.Reply

The difference between FS1 and FS2 is primarily the existence of some extra qualifications. The reason g-sync is a high premium for monitors is a combination of controller, licensing, and certification.As FS1 requires no formal certification (there are many optional features in this space such as low framerate compensation, and some panels only support very narrow ranges of 45-60Hz but not higher or lower rates) it is basically a free feature.FS2 requires HDR10 support and a controller capable of tone mapping bypass/switching (because windows doesn't play nice outside of sRGB space) and support for AMDs API to support said tone mapping bypass/switching.It certainly won't cost anywhere near the premium that g-sync does, that isn't the game AMD has historically played, plus they are bringing lessons from console into the PC space.Reply

To clarify: the controller issue is actually a pretty easy adjustment for the panel makers.I suspect the issue is going to fall more heavily on the target market these FS2 panels are addressing weighed against what currently constitutes the "typical AMD user" crowd. I expect to see more of the kind of bundling deal that was setup for the RX Vega launch in the future, with AMD pushing specific models from partners that support FS2 (RX Vega was offering bundles on Samsung's new quantum dot curved monitor and ultra-wide line)Reply

Yes, well, perhaps the headline has you confused. This gaming display is actually... a gaming display. If you're looking for a display that is best suited towards <insert primary purpose other than gaming>, you should probably look elsewhere. Reply